Finding a Home Became Harder in 2017

In the last year, American home buyers faced shortages in the number of properties available for sale. “We saw the lowest number of active listings for sale in over two decades, a full generation,” said Javier Vivas, director of economic research for Realtor.com, which maintains a database of more than 99 percent of homes listed nationally and provided data for this article.

In December 2017, inventory was down 9.2 percent compared with a year earlier, with the least expensive listings — those priced under $200,000 — showing the biggest drop: 19 percent.

Inventory ebbs and flow month to month, of course, and usually peaks around midyear. Those numbers showed a slightly lower, but still significant decrease: In June 2017, 1.55 million homes were on the market nationally, compared with 1.75 million a year earlier, a drop of 11.2 percent. But compared with the inventory available five years earlier, in June 2012 — 2.14 million homes — last year’s midyear number represented a staggering 28 percent drop.

Among the 30 most populous metropolitan areas in the United States, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, only four had an increase in the number of homes available last year. All the rest saw a decline. Not surprisingly, prices appreciated 5.5 percent in 2017, likely as a result of the increased competition, making it all the more challenging to afford a home if you could find one.